


Chapter One: The Mid-Autumn Festival

by jchao745



Series: In The Mid-Autumn: The Sorry We Couldn't Say that Day [3]
Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 20:12:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5798383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jchao745/pseuds/jchao745





	Chapter One: The Mid-Autumn Festival

Julie felt a small tug and woke up to see her little brother pulling her blankets off. The lights weren’t turned on, but the rays of the morning sun that made their way through the cracks of the curtains were enough for her to make out his image.  
“Mom told me to wake you up.” He poked her cheek and scurried out of the room.  
The girl sighed and fell back onto the bed thinking about how wonderful it would be to sleep for a few more minutes. Julie had only closed her eyes for a few seconds when the lights in her room suddenly turned on. Irritated, Julie dashed up to see her little sister by the door.  
“C’mon, big sis. Mom said you gotta get up.”  
“Ugh,” Julie said, twisting and turning. “You’ve always had a better time getting up...”  
“Well it’s not like I force myself to sleep late.”  
“Yea, I know.” Julie slipped out of her bed.  
“What time did you stay up till?”  
“Probably about one in the morning.”  
“Damn, you really do want to kill yourself.” The little sister chuckled with pity. “It’s only September.” She was right. For Julie, it had only been two weeks since the start of her sophomore year in high school, and she had already begun pulling all nighters.  
“Well of course you don’t know. You’re still in middle school. When you get to high school you’ll understand.”  
“Okay,” she said leaving.  
The casual tone gave Julie the impression that her sister didn’t care about her. She sighed deeply, and glanced around her room, becoming annoyed that she had just a small room with very little in it; a small desk, that, at night, transformed into a mess of papers and pens, and a wall closet on the far side of the room. The yellow of the walls was tolerable, but one more shade darker would’ve made her puke at the very sight. She ignored minor details, like the chewed up peppermint gum that stuck on the edge of the garbage can, or the dust that you could see floating in the air after standing still for too long.  
Before Julie could start to see that very same dust, she heard a light tap on her window. She yawned, covering her mouth with her hand, and reached for the window using her other. Her eyes were shut, but she knew exactly where to stretch her arm. She knew because it had had normal for her to do so almost every morning.  
The windows swung open and after she recovered from a flashbang of sunshine, she saw someone on the street, waving below her.  
“Good morning, Dennis,” Julie greeted, drowsily slouching over the edge, her eyes half close from sleepiness.  
“You ready? We’re almost late,” Dennis yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth to extend his voice.  
“Yea, yea. I’ll be right out,” Julie swiftly closed the window. High School huh … that’s right. The golden age of youth where youngsters yearn for the future and romance, but that’s only trivial, she thought to herself as she quickly scurried into her bathroom and took a look at herself in the mirror.  
Julie ran down the stairs, already dressed, and went into the kitchen.  
“Good morning,” she said, speed walking into her family of five and taking the piece of toast from her plate.  
“Finally woke up?” her little sister said with a sarcastic giggle.  
“I’ll hurt you, Kate,” Julie replied, giving her little sister a death glare.  
“Julie, wait!” Her mother held Julie’s morning beverage in the air. “What about your orange juice?”  
“I’m late mom. I’ll get something at school. Love you.” Julie walked out of the house, closed the front door, and saw Dennis standing there, waiting.  
“Ready?”  
“Yup, let’s go.” They both walked on the road to the school, which was only five blocks away from their neighborhood. Julie noticed something out of the ordinary. Usually the duo would have strange conversations about random things, but Dennis was extremely quiet this morning. “Is something wrong?”  
“Um...” He seemed to be holding something back, “What made you say that?”  
“Well, I was just wondering. You’re never this quiet.”  
“Hmmmm,” Dennis looked up to the sky as he walked. “I guess you’re right.”  
“So why are you so quiet all of a sudden?”  
“I don’t know. I just don’t feel like it.”  
Julie, seeing how her interrogation wasn’t working, decided to stop.  
“Speaking of quiet.” Dennis said. “A lot of my friends think you’re too quiet. Said that if you talked more you would have a huge popularity base. I noticed that you only talk to a few people.”  
“And you,” Julie had to mention Dennis.  
“Yeah…why am I like the only boy you talk to?”  
“Reasons,” Julie chuckled and skipped in front of Dennis. Julie actually didn’t know why. She started to wonder when she started to become a quiet figure.  
“Have you ever had a boyfriend?” Dennis said, stopping where he was.  
“Wait…what!?!”  
“I meant a friend that was a boy,” Dennis semi sprung around because of the mix up of words.  
“No,” Julie said bluntly. Julie wasn’t entirely honest. Dennis started to walk again and Julie stopped for him to catch up.  
“You’re lying,” he said when they stood side by side.  
They reached the school and they were both going to part ways to their separate classes when Julie saw a group of her friends chatting before school started. She dashed off to join them, leaving Dennis in the dust.  
“Whats going on?” Julie said, jumping right into the conversation.  
“Oh hey, Julie,” one of the girls said while the rest were talking or immersed in their conversation.  
“Good morning, Lauren.” Dennis looked scared while walking towards the group of girls.  
“Um, Julie?” his voice completely silenced the whole group and they turned their full attention to him and Julie. Julie looked at Dennis and at her friends with a confused look.  
“You need something?”  
“Yea. um,” he gulped and hesitated for a split second. “Will you go out with me to the Mid-Autumn festival tomorrow night?” he said exhausted himself.  
“She’ll be glad to, Dennis,” Lauren said, stepping in because of Julie’s silence. “right Julie?”  
“Yea,” Julie completely caught off guard of what her friend just said. “sure, I’ll go”.  
“Really, you will?” Dennis said, thinking that he had to hear it from her.  
“I will. Its a date,” both Julie and Dennis smiled towards each other.  
“Tomorrow. Seven pm, I’ll pick you up at your house?  
“Sure,” Julie said with reddened cheeks.  
“Sorry to bother you all,” he said in courtesy to the whole group before galloping off to his own. After the girls saw Dennis clear out of the way completely, the conversation began again.  
“What did I tell you? I told you he was going to ask you out!” Lauren smiled from her successful prediction.  
“Yea...don’t rub it in my face,” Julie pleaded, blushing from embarrassment. Lauren grabbed Julie to pull her away from the rest of the group. In privacy, of some sort, she swung her arm and rested it on Julie’s shoulder.  
“So how long do you think you’ll last with him?” Lauren smirked along with the question.  
“Wait, what?” Julie said, completely caught off guard of her friend’s sudden curiosity. “Well … “, Julie prepared her confession. “Junior year is coming up soon. We might have to end in the summer, I guess.”  
Lauren immediately walked back a few steps.  
“Hold on a second. You serious?” Lauren said with complete shock of Julie’s answer.  
“I’m not kidding,” Julie said with a straight tone.  
“But you love him. This is like every girl’s dream. People everywhere would kill for this to happen.”  
“I know but…” Julie paused. She didn’t know what else to say. She’d been given an opportunity that only happens in stories and shows, but she was just throwing it away.  
“Girl,” Lauren sighed. “You are so strange.”  
“I know,” Julie said, giving back the smirk. “Lets get to class.”  
“Sure,” Lauren said, both of them walking through the school to their first period class.  
***  
Julie read the clock and it was already 11:40 a.m, well into 5th period. Julie sat in her seat in the front of the room, staring at the complexity of the math problem.  
“You heard of the new guy in school?” Julie heard one of her classmate’s gossip behind her.  
“No I didn’t. Is he hot?” she heard another girl say.  
“I haven’t seen him yet, but I hope so. I know no one has seen him yet. Supposedly he’s been in the principal’s office the whole day. Something about him from another country.”  
“Wait, he’s a foreign exchange student?”  
Julie shot up from her seat and the two girls immediately stopped their conversion and without a word Julie walked out of the room with her teacher’s papers, fed up and annoyed beyond stupidity of the conversation she was forced to listen to.  
She even heard some words of the new student while walking in the hallways on her way to the teachers’ office.  
“Excuse me,” she said, abruptly opening the door, “Sorry for the intrusion, I just wanted to … “ she stopped her sentence in the middle when she found out that the office was completely empty. She was the only one in the room. She found it awkward and was glad no one was there to see her fit. She walked over to her teacher’s desk and placed the papers the teacher wanted from her on it.  
As class was about to start, she returned to her seat, only to start the class with no teacher present. In the back, her classmates had already begun to chit chat with each other. She could have easily gone over to her two friends in the class, but she then thought of her studies. She reached into her bag and took out one of the study guides she carried.  
Class time went by quickly and it was already 9th period, the end of the school day. After 6th period, there were no teachers that attended any of Julie’s classes. There were substitutes that replaced them for the time being whose only job was to oversee the class, not to teach.  
The last bell rang and Julie sighed, disappointed from today’s poor results. She was one day closer to taking the College Board SAT test and she would leave the school with little to no progression.  
Walking downstairs from the third floor, she turned the corner to see a group of students from all grades, squeezed together around a classroom door window. She saw two of her friends pass her about to join the crowd and she asked them, “Nancy, what's going on?”  
Nancy stopped and turned to say, “Supposedly, the new guy is in there talking to a teacher.” Pointing at the same classroom, Julie’s expression quickly turned pale uninterested in the highlights around the new student.  
Julie turned around to walk away from the scene and her friend said “You’re not coming?”  
Without turning around, Julie waved and said “I have a lot of work. See you guys tomorrow.”  
Before Julie walked away any further, the silence of everyone in the hallway took her attention and tempted her to turn back and look.  
While everyone gasped in shock, Julie’s eyes widened, holding her breath in disbelief. Out of the classroom came the teacher and the new student behind him. It was the boy years ago she met on the grassy hill when she was lost. Ever since they met, he’d always wait for her and on the last day they saw each other, she waited for him; he’d never came.  
“Alrighty kids. There’s nothing to see here,” the teacher said, waving his arms around to disperse the crowd of students out the way. He and the boy then walked past them. Julie and the rest of them turned around to see them disappear around the corner.  
“Hey, isn’t that Jonathan?” Nancy questioned.  
“Who?” the girl besides her asked.  
“You don’t know him, Maxine,” Julie snapped at the question. Nancy and Maxine looked at each other with confusion of Julie’s sudden attitude.  
“He went to our middle school but disappeared randomly in the eighth grade,” Nancy comforted Maxine with more information. “I don’t really know him. Julie, do you remember him?”  
“I’m just as confused as you are. I’ll see both of you tomorrow,” Julie said, walking away from the two and also thinking about the boy and how for the second time, he didn’t look at her when they passed.  
***  
The next morning, Julie was in class with her head faced down on her desk on her crossed arms which acted as a soft pillow.  
“Good morning, Jules!” Lauren waltzed into the class and gave Julie a series of pats on the back. Julie turned her head to reveal her face.  
“Woah, Julie!” Lauren flailed backwards. “What time you sleep last night. You look like a zombie.”  
“I slept pretty late,” she omitted, but she knew it wasn’t because of the homework. Julie finished her homework early last night so that wasn’t what kept her up.  
She stretched back up, rubbing her eyes to force her to wake up. “Don’t you have class?” Julie asked in an attempt to give Lauren a reason to go away.  
“I’m off this period,” Lauren smiled with joy while Julie groaned back into her previous position. “You know, I never understood why you didn’t take any off periods.”  
“C’mon,” Julie mumbled through her sweater. “You know I can’t afford to waste credits on doing nothing.”  
“There’s a difference between knowing and understanding,” Lauren gave a second smile of satisfaction.  
“Whatever. Mr. Levine is just going to kick you out when class starts.”  
“Oh, you’re right. Mr. Levine is pretty scary.”  
“Mr. Levine is not scary.”  
“Julie. Who was the person that complained about her math grade?”  
“… me …”  
“And which teacher gave that to you?”  
“ … Mr. Levine, but that doesn’t make him scary. He was doing his job. I didn’t do well in math and you know how bad at math I am.”  
“True,” Lauren viciously agreed and looked at the clock at disbelief. “Oh would you look at the time. Its almost time for Mr. Levine to come. Anyways, talk to you later, see ya, bye,” Lauren rushed and waltzed out of the room the same way she entered.  
“She sure does love this class,” Mr. Levine said while entering the class and witnessing the escapee Lauren. “Alrighty class. Please take your seats and we can begin.”  
“C’mon, Mr. Levine. Can’t we relax or have a party some time?? Its first period. Everyone is tired,” a male student from the back of the class suggested.  
“Everybody, quiet down,” Mr. Levine asked for order, “We are always having a party in class,” he paused and smiled, “by learning math!”. At the climax, he took out today’s worksheets and passed them around while everyone grumbled. “Whats the matter? Aren’t we all having fun?” Mr. Levine continued to joke around.  
***  
The clock read 2:45 and the dismissal bell rang. Julie walked out of the classroom and saw in the corner of her left eye, the familiar foreign student, come out of the classroom right next door. He was accompanied with other boys, laughing and enjoying his time.  
No that can’t be him, she thought. He would never smile like that.  
“Julie!” she heard someone call her name right behind her. She turned and was surprised to see Dennis. “I called your name before, but you weren’t paying attention.”  
“I’m so sorry, Dennis.”  
“What were you looking at anyways,” Dennis said as you attempted to look around Julie to get an idea of what she was so concentrated on.  
“Its nothing, Dennis,” Julie said, panicking and moving in front of Dennis’ view to prevent him from looking. Dennis moved around but Julie followed, blushing from the scene she was causing in the hallways.  
“Dennis, stop it.”  
“Alright, alright.”  
“What’s the matter?” Julie asked, seeing Dennis in a mood of urgency.  
“It’s about tonight,” Dennis fiddled with his hands.  
“Oh my god,” Julie said, realizing that she had made plans with Dennis. “I almost forgot we were going together.”  
“I’m the one that needs to be sorry,” Dennis said, scratching his head.  
“Hm,” Julie looked puzzled from the sudden shift of conversation.  
“I can’t go with you tonight. Something came up and I need to perform in a play tonight...I wouldn’t be able to be with you at all. I’m sorry for making plans and cancelling them in the end.”  
“Dennis. It’s fine. You don’t have to be sorry,” Julie laid back, trying to comfort Dennis from his feelings of guilt. “We’ll do something next time.”  
“Thank you so much,” Dennis’s spirit sprang up with delight. “I thought you would hate me for this.” he chuckled, mocking his previous thoughts. Both of them smiled towards each other.  
“Jules!” Julie looked down the hall, past Dennis, to see Lauren waving her to come.  
“I think I have to go,” Julie said, starting a jog towards her friend.  
“Wait!” Dennis yelled, grabbing her wrist. Julie, seeing what just happened, began to blush.  
“I-I’m so sorry! That wasn’t suppose to happen!” Dennis immediately let go.  
“No...It’s ok,” Julie said, her cheeks still flushed red.  
“It’s just that....Since we won’t be together, can you at least come see me in the play?” Julie looked at Dennis for a moment.  
“Yes. Of course.”  
“Great! It starts at 7:30, all the way down at the end of the stalls.”  
“Julie!” Lauren yelled impatiently for her attention.  
“I’m coming!” Julie turned around, yelled back, and turned back to Dennis. “I got to go. I’ll see you tonight.”  
“I’ll see you too,” he said, and saw Julie jog to Lauren while he waved from behind, standing still.  
“Hey, what’s up,” Julie said, reaching Lauren.  
“Gosh, that took you long enough. We’re going to grab some crepes. Wanna come?”  
“Sure.” Both of them began walking towards to the exit of the school.  
“So whats going on with you and Dennis,” Lauren asked, with a demonic look on her face. Julie’s body shivered from the question.  
“Where did that come from?”  
“Oh. You avoiding my question,” Lauren inched closer to Julie. Being uncomfortable, Julie was forced to back away from Lauren. “Just kidding,” Lauren said with a giggle. 

***  
“Woah, those crepes were good,” Lauren said, stretching her arms back behind her as she and Julie walked through the neighborhood.  
“You had the Chocolate Coconut Crepe, right?”  
“Yea, I did. And you had the Strawberry Banana one. Don’t you ever get bored of that? You always order the same thing.”  
“Well its the only thing there that interests me. Plus, I don’t like trying out new things if I know there is something I like.”  
“Wow, Julie. You are a boring person.”  
“That’s a mean thing to say...”  
“I was just kidding!” Lauren said in a rush, causing both of them to laugh.  
“Well,” Julie said when they both reached an intersection. “I have to go this way. See you tomorrow.”  
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Lauren said, both of them walking away from each other. “Play it cool tonight.”  
“What?” Julie said. But by then, Lauren had already walked too far to be heard. Julie shrugged it off and went on her own. The sun wasn’t set but the street lights began to light up the neighborhood. The image of a small park began to appear out of the corner as she came closer and she, for some reason, thought about what Dennis said today and how both of them met for the second time.  
***  
At home, Julie was in her room, staring into her closet, complexed about what to wear. Perhaps for the first time, she began to worry about how others would judge her on clothes and surprisingly even considered makeup. But noticing how late it was, she began to panick.  
“Julie!” Kate yelled, breaking Julie’s thought. “Isn’t this cute?” She twirled around in the bright red traditional Chinese outfit. “Mom did the makeup.” Julie smiled at the sight of her little sister.  
“You look really cute, Kate,” Julie complimented, but Kate’s smile soon diminished.  
“C’mon. You’re not suppose to say nice things like that. Plus, didn’t this used to be yours?”  
“Well, it’s good to say nice things once in a while. And yea, I used to wear that every year but I outgrew it. It’s good to know that someone else is wearing it.”  
“When was the last time you wore it?” Kate asked.  
“I can’t remember. Maybe 8th grade?”  
“Hm. Okay,” Kate said abruptly, turning to leave Julie’s room.  
“Hey, maybe when Derek get bigger, we’ll put it him.”  
“Ew!” Julie heard Kate yell out in the hall, causing Julie to smirk at the joke. With Kate out of her thoughts, Julie went back to stare in her closet. This time, she seemed more relaxed, and reached for the outfit best fit for the night.  
***  
Kate was walking along the aisles of stalls set up for the festival, holding Derek’s hand.  
“Kate, I want that,” Derek pointed at one of the stalls.  
“Derek, you want a candy apple? You know that’s bad for you.”  
“But I want one,” Derek whined. “I want one, Kate!”  
“Okay then! I just have enough for one. I’ll give it to you, okay?”  
“I’ll share it then!” Derek said with delight.  
“Really? You’d do that for me?”  
“Yea!” Derek let go of her hand and galloped off into the line and Kate followed with a smile.  
A few moments later, Kate and Derek got to the front.  
“Sorry little girl, but you don’t have enough,” the person stationed at the candy apples said.  
“What do you mean? The sign says it’s $4.99 and I just have enough for tax too,” Kate said, with a furious attitude of how unfair she was being treated.  
“That’s a mistake. Sorry about that. Next!” the person yelled for the next person in line, completely ignoring Kate.  
“Its okay, Kate. I don’t want it anymore. You’re mad now. I don’t like you mad,” Derek suggested.  
“I’m sorry, Derek. Let me deal with this,” Kate said, kneeling down to Derek. “Look Mr. False Priced Candy Apples. You have a sign with the wrong price for your product. If you don’t change that, I’ll get the committee to shut down this stall,” she stood back up to talk to the indecent man.  
“Hey missy. I don’t need to deal with this right now. And you’re holding up the line. Next!” the man yelled. Kate was being ignored again. “How many do you want? Three?” the man, taking the order of the person behind Kate and Derek.  
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t get one for you. I’m a bad sister,” Kate said to Derek, taking him away from the stall.  
“Its okay. I still love you. Next time, I’ll get you a candy apple,” Derek said, comforting Kate.  
“Excuse me, little boy,” a boy who seemed like he was from high school said behind Kate.  
“Is there something wrong?” Kate got up to greet him.  
“There's nothing wrong. I just wanted to give this to him,” the boy reached out a candy apple, causing Derek to smile joyously. “I know those kind of people are annoying but we just have to deal with them.”  
Kate was about to say that they couldn’t accept it but Derek had already taken the apple to bite.  
“Um. When can I pay you back?” Kate proposed.  
“No need to. Looking at your dress gave me a nostalgic feeling.” His words soon caused Kate’s face to flush red with embarrassment.  
“Is it a good feeling, mister?”  
“Hm. I don’t know. Maybe it is.”  
“Why do you have two candy apples?” Derek continued to bother the stranger.  
“It’s for another person.”  
“Is that person special?”  
“Well excuse us,” Kate said, butting into their conversation. “We were told to not talk to strangers. But thank you for the candy apple.”  
“Thank you kind mister!”  
“Well, I’m sorry.” The boy was very sincere. “The candy apple is on me.” It was at that moment they both walked away from each other. As Kate dragged Derek’s hand forward, Derek turned his head back, to see the boy disappeared into the crossing crowd.  
“Who was he?” Derek said, looking up at his older sister.  
“I don’t know, Derek. I don’t know,” she said looking forward.  
“He was a kind man, wasn’t he, Kate?” Derek added.  
“He sure was,” Kate said, now smiling at Derek. “Lets go find our sister.”  
“Yea. Lets go. Lets go,” Derek said, pointing forward as they both walked all the way to the end of the aisle where the play was going on.  
***  
Kate and Derek kept on walking with their hands held together and they neared the end of the aisle.  
“Hey!” Derek yelled, pointing looking at Kate. “It’s Julie.” Derek let go of Kate’s hand and ran off to Julie with his candy apple, half consumed, to Julie.  
“Don’t drop the apple, Derek!” Kate yelled, seeing Derek run away. Kate took her time, walking to the rest of her family.  
“Where did you get the candy apple?” Julie asked Derek. “Did Kate buy it for you?”  
“Actually…” Kate said, hoping to interrupt so she could tell the story straight.  
“A kind mister gave it to me,” Derek said, beating Kate to the story.  
“A kind mister?” Julie questioned. “Someone else bought it?”  
“Yea, but he said it was fine. We don’t have to pay him back,” Kate tried to convince Julie of the event. “He was really strange though. He sort of complimented my dress. Said it gave him a nostalgic feeling.”  
“Seriously? No, that’s ridiculous. Where is he right now? I’ll go pay him back.”  
“Julie, he insisted that it was fine.”  
“Please, Kate.” Derek looked at both of them, confused whether or not this was a argument or just a little dispute.  
“We last saw him around the stall near the park of benches. You most likely won’t find him. He’s sure to have gone somewhere else.”  
“I’ll find him,” Julie assured Kate. “Thanks,” she said leaving the scene. Julie was well lost into the crowd.  
“Kate, is Julie mad?”  
“I don’t think so. Wanna watch the show?”  
“Yea!”  
On the stage behind the curtains, Dennis was working, moving crates of props for the show around. On the little opening between the walls he saw Julie’s image get farther and farther from the stage. He paused and just stared into the audience, thinking whether or not he should be sad or relieved.  
***  
Out of breath, panting, Julie stopped when she was at the park of benches while also seeing the stall selling the candy apples.  
“What an idiot,” Julie said to herself. “I don’t even know what he looks like and I’m trying to pay him back.” She gave another look.  
“Um. Sir. Did you by any chance give a candy apple to a boy and girl? … No? … Excuse me, sorry.” She said that several times, just asking random people who she thought they would’ve committed the deed.  
Tired, Julie found a bench and sat on it, looking at the festival unfold at close range. She flipped her phone open to see that the time was 7:15. Dennis’s show started at 6:45. Julie yelled out of frustration but the sounds of the festival made sure no one heard her.  
How strange though, Julie thought. The guy had a nostalgic feeling about the dress but that doesn’t make sense. There’s no way. There was no one else that would know about that dress except for her family and middleschool friends.  
Stumped on finding this person, she stared at the candy apple stall which was giving her so much trouble. She could hear the old man screaming from across the pathway which made her chuckle, “He hasn’t changed since the day I got lost.” Julie then suddenly caught herself saying something strange. Since the day I got lost, she thought to herself. Something started to run through her mind. Right across the old man’s candy apple stall, behind the bench, there’s a hidden path that leads to a hill covered by the trees of the park. Julie began to follow this nostalgic feeling.  
Getting the tree branches and the brush out of her way, she paused to see what was before her. It was an open hill with a well grown tree that sat in the middle. Next to the tree, stood a figure. Tall, broad shoulders, short black hair. It was a boy and he held two candy apples in his left hand pointing downward. He stood there, watching the festival unfold before him.  
Julie stood there in disbelief, as she heard the launching of the fireworks and witnessed the explosion of all colors that brightened the sky and the hill. She stepped forward onto a thick patch of grass, making a sound, causing the figure to turn around. The next set of fireworks were launched and the light made the figure’s face out.  
Julie was still speechless as they both looked at each other. She knew who was in front of her. It was their own secret place that no one knew about. The place she found when she was lost and the place where he planted the tree. The new student in the school was never new to begin with. He belonged here from the start and now he was back.  
“Welcome ba …”  
“I’ve been back for a long time.” The boy before her said with an angry tone. “I was wondering how long people here would notice.” He turned to look down on the town.  
“You’re,” Julie hesitated before she said the name. “Jona -”  
“That’s not it,” the boy firmly said.  
“C’mon, don’t joke around.”  
“This isn’t a joke. I changed my name.”  
“Jonathan,” Julie said it so fast that the boy couldn’t correct her.  
“Julie, I already said it countless times.”  
“It seems you remembered my name.”  
“Unlike some people, I don’t forget the people I meet.” The boy stared at Julie and Julie instantly understood what he meant.  
Julie absolutely didn’t know what to do or what to think. She was completely paralyzed in thought and was frozen still by the cold words from the person she thought she knew before.  
“Speechless? Classic Julie.” In the midst of the explosion of colors in the sky, the boy walked next to Julie. “The name is Ike now. This Jonathan you know … I don’t know him.” The boy exited the hill, leaving one of the candy apples he had in Julie’s hand.  
The barrage of fireworks continued on in the night sky of the festival and at that point in time, everything was lost like a dream. It wasn’t good like a fulfilled wish, or bad enough to be a nightmare, but it was a memory that was forgettable.


End file.
